Five Places to Look for Inspiration for With-Pet Travellers

Thanks to this amazing little intimate group I was invited to join called… get this “Positive Vibes” (so awesome) I am not the only one writing about inspiration this week: take a look at Backroad Ramblers here for some great photo inspiration, Tangled in Food (You got to eat!) here, and The Adventure Dog Blog here for some great hiking and “connecting with your dog” inspiration!

Although I am not a huge do-er of roundups, I am a BIG fan of inspiration in all its forms. I love how inspiration can come to us in unexpected ways. I love how it can mean different things to different people, and more than anything, I love seeing how we can all inspire each other.

Montecristo Travels was started over six years ago to provide information for people who want to travel internationally with their small dogs. Are we achieving our goal? We thought we would check in and do a tally for 2016.

We counted our emails in our inbox, Messenger texts, and Instagram and Facebook comments. Get this! In 2016, we inspired a whopping 217 people to travel with their pets either for the first time or for the first time outside of their own continent. This number is a lot higher than we expected. It totally threw us for a loop in fact! We inspired people to “do it.” And that makes us want to keep going!

BUT! For us to keep going, WE need inspiration too! SO, I am going to take this opportunity to answer one of the questions we get asked a LOT:

“What or who inspires you to travel? Where do you get your ideas for where you are going to next?”

1. Other With-Dog Travel Bloggers

I will not lie to you: our #1 source of inspiration is other travel bloggers. It will be no surprise to you, Dear Reader, to find that the travel bloggers we follow have pets. It’s a natural progression really. Interestingly, when we started, there weren’t a lot of with-pet travel bloggers to follow. Today, I am really happy to see that the list has grown by leaps and bounds.

These bloggers, like us, have taken with-pet travel beyond hiking and camping (although also awesome) to full-on international travel. Just as we promote! So be it following Gigi and Luna as they bike across a huge chunk of France or road trip across Canada, the “big dog” international traveller Shark and her mom, Maria, from The Tropical Dog (currently in Peru after months in Columbia), or any of the other bloggers on our list, we take immense delight in being part of a circle of likeminded bloggers we can turn to for inspiration. In fact, it’s one reason I started the new interview series —— to show that, indeed, we are NOT alone. Not by a long shot.

2. Instagram and Other Social Media

We also feel hugely inspired by a bigger and bigger crowd of international with-pet travellers we found on Instagram and Facebook; for example, the gorgeous photos taken by Traveling Chihuahuas, or the antics of the hilarious duo Pug and Cat. We have enjoyed so much of what we have seen and, most importantly, been inspired by their adventures. We often swoon at Max et Louise frolicking in the sea in Portugal or skiing in Austria; and suffer style envy for Rocky the Bullterrier and his suave self-posing all over Europe, and Little Lola Sunshine strutting her fashionable trickster self on the streets of Paris, NYC, Milan, and other fashion-forward cities of the world. Travelling with your dog never looked so good! Janine and Kira have a life on the road to envy and The Traveling Abbie who I swear is following in my pawsteps. There are SO many now! Even cats like Bolt and Keel! Heck there is even Jet Set Paws with Carrie an actual travel agent that will help you plan your trip and make it happen!

3. Our Fans

Something that never stops amazing us is how welcoming our fans are. On a regular basis. We went on a road trip through Bulgaria, visited Texas, went to Miami and enjoyed the love in Philadelphia and the sun on the Jersey Shore. None of these stops were on our list of places to go, but were added and bumped to the top with gracious invitations from fans to “couch surf.”

Making the best of Miami Beach!

We have never regretted accepting an invitation. Granted, we’ve been online friends with these folks for a long time and have come to know them, but it’s an amazing feeling to meet them face to face. Their generosity, hospitality, and desire to show off their part of the planet is a huge inspiration to us. The world is a beautiful place and these big generous hearts made sure we got to experience something new. I have learned and been reminded of the truth in the adage, “There is more that unites us than divides us.”

4. Movies and Books

Yep, I know it may sound insane, but there is nothing more fun than reading a book that is set somewhere overseas and knowing exactly what the narrator is on about because we’ve walked those streets and seen those sites! Although we would never travel *because* of a book —— say, for example, Dan Brown’s *Inferno* —— a story can certainly nudge us with desire, causing us to whisper, “Ohhh, we should go!” *Inferno* starts in Florence. We LOVED our time in Florence and reading the narrator’s descriptions of the museums, gardens, and Duomo made us yearn to go back. Then, when the book takes the reader to Venice, and then Istanbul … well, the seed gets planted. I know I will hear Mom or Dad say, “Hey, we should go to Venice next!” Then wham … wouldn’t you know it, it’s our next trip!

Ah Florence! That Duomo will forever make our heart sing!

Movies and even TV shows can have the same effect, especially border crossing shows like NBC’s series, now on Netflix, *Crossing Lines* or *Sense8*. Oh man, oh man, oh man! Now those are action filled TV series for travel lovers.

5. The Bucket List

I know, I know, obvious, right? But let’s be honest, we all have a bucket list. It can be a to-do list of sorts or, in our case, a “go-to” list. Currently, way up at the tippy top of our list is Peru, Thailand, Puerto Rico, and … well, pretty much all of Europe. Still, and always. I didn’t say it’s an exact science! But having that list does give us focus and allows us to be inspired by certain images more than others. You ever notice that when you decide to go someplace, all of a sudden it’s like everyone is talking about it? Yeah … that’s a thing. Our list is like that. The bipeds are getting married in August, and the honeymoon … ? So far, it’s a doozy, with a start in Venice (see? told you —— books!), then a train trip to Nice, and onward into Spain, and then Portugal … . Nothing is set in stone but the funny thing is, now, all we see on Instagram are photos of Venice and Lisbon, with an occasional Barcelona shot tossed in for good measure. Weirdness? Or serendipity?

Feeling the L O V E in Philly!

So that’s what inspires our with-dog international travel, Dear Reader. What inspires you? What makes you want to go out there and spend quality time with loved ones, human or otherwise? Do you have an amazing with dog travel blog you want to share? Go for it!

53 Comments on “Five Places to Look for Inspiration for With-Pet Travellers”

Thanks for your shout outs for Philly and the southern New Jersey shore which prompted me to go back and see that cutest photo ever of Montecristo and Dino chillaxin’ in Brigantine. You guys inspired me to invite myself to visit you in Ottawa (Gatineau)—–a first for me. I only knew you on-line. Like you did at the Miami Airport, I remember getting off the train to be picked up by Monte and his biped mother, wondering, “How will I know if they’re axe murderers?” Fortunately, you weren’t and I’m not, and it turned out better than good. I’m looking forward to returning this summer (with Mr. Excitement) to help celebrate your wedding!

I think I get most of my travel inspiration from Instagram. That visual appeal is often too much for me to resist. I have never heard of a few of the accounts you mention – can’t wait to check out some new travel with dog inspiration. Lovely post!

You inspire me and think that maybe it’s not as hard to travel with a dog. And maybe I just need to take that step out of my comfort zone and go for it!
I’m hoping to travel this spring with Edie to Chicago for a pug meet up, it will be the first time out of Canada for Edie and too be honest I’m a little nervous!

Movies and books are great travel inspirations–definitely not insane 😉 I’m planning a trip to Norway and Iceland this year partly inspired by my love of Nordic crime novels, so the Dan Brown/Florence connection sounds very neat.

We love to travel with our dogs. My blog began with local adventures, but in the past year moved to traveling abroad. We did not take any dogs this time, though, and it was hard. Mine are large and I don’t like flying them in cargo. I need to win the lottery and fly them in my own private jet! lol There’s a lot to learn about traveling with dogs but it can be so rewarding. Ultimately I’d love to take the dogs to places that are vastly different than what we are used to. I think they enjoy it as much as we do.

So interesting and we loved ‘meeting’ all of these people and their pups! Wow, what a vast world we live in – and yes, most definitely, sharing it with our pets is vital to our happiness! We get to see the world through their (often silly) eyes. I hope you come to Seattle sometime, we’d love to meet up!

I find inspiration in the beauty of the world around me and a sense of adventure. I want to explore and see the beauty of this world. I am also inspired by my dogs and letting them experience the world and be out in nature.

I lived in Belgium for three years when I was in elementary school. Whenever you post photos of Europe, it makes me homesick to return. Charlotte Reeves is an Australian dog photographer, and her photos inspire me to travel to Australia. She used to work as a travel photographer, and just went one step further and added awesome dogs to the canvas. If you ever travel to Australia, I hope you’ll get her to take your portrait!

What an inspiring post! We travel extensively across the U.S. with our dogs. I’m always looking to connect with other folks who travel with dogs & believe as I do – dogs love new ecperiences too & there’s rarely a reason to leave them behind! Thanks for providing links to all these travel blogs, I look forward to meeting them!
Love & biscuits,
Dogs Luv Us and We Luv Them

I too am most inspired by other bloggers and social media. Congrats on your multiple Nose to Nose nominations! I am honored to be nominated with you in the blog post category. I hope to see you at Blogpaws!

How fun to find your blog! I will share it with my auntie as she & her yellow Lab love traveling together. My Basset minion travels in the states with my humans. She would love to go anywhere & everywhere with them. Mew Mew!

You have definately inspired us to both travel more with our dogs plus starting a blog about travelling with dogs 🙂

I wrote your posts about Prague and we actually went to Prague this summer 🙂 We got a lot of inspiration from your posts. I haven’t written about our visit yet, but I wrote about the nationalpark an hour from Prague (we like to go hiking 🙂 ).

We have actually taken that extra step to quit our jobs and travel for a year with our two fluffies 🙂 We will be travelling Europe for a year start May next year and I can’t wait! 😀